Tablets and smartphones are not just about keeping kids entertained and for checking out social media. As the new school term begins, we take a look at some apps that can help you and your kids learn.

Remember the days as a child when you’d spend ages trying to figure out such things as how to use a knife and fork, how to do your homework and how to tie your shoe laces? It was often accompanied by an impatient parent, hurrying you along to get what for adults is a simple, commonplace occurrence. Well, whether a child who cannot tie his or her own shoe laces, or an impatient parent eager to teach, there are a host of apps available to help us learn these days.

Tie Your Shoes!

For starters there’s the Tie Your Shoes! App. The app, created by Philadelphia based alotta.edu, promises to end children’s “Velcro Shoe Dependency” among school age children who want to ‘tie their own shoes like big kids do.’

The app is designed so a child can work alone or with parental help. And it is available on the iPhone and iPad. The videos are pretty good and easy to follow. Check it out for yourself.

Apps for Learning

One of the leading companies in the production of ‘educational’ apps is a US and UK based company called Touch Screen.

Just some of their educational apps include Barefoot Books World Atlas – a fantastic 3D globe app that invites children to explore the regions and countries of the world. It really does showcase the iPad and apps at their best.

Shakespeare in Full Flow

For older children (as well as adults) there are a number of new book based apps coming to the fore that showcase learning. While you can read original texts such as Shakespeare’s Sonnets or T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, you can also use the app to find extra notes, expert reviews and much more, including the likes of Patrick Stewart and Stephen Fry reciting from the text.

Shakespeare’s Sonnets are available from the iTunes App Store priced at £9.99